Tunnel construction fundamentally differs from building and aboveground civil infrastructure projects. Drill-and-blast is one of the most common and flexible tunnel construction methods. However, it is complex and challenging because a large amount of data is generated from dispersed, independent, and heterogeneous sources. The tunneling industry still uses traditional project management techniques to manage complex interactions between these data sources that are hardly linked, and independent decisions are often made without considering all the relevant aspects. In this context, tunnel construction exhibits uncertainties and risks due to unforeseen circumstances, intricate design, and ineffective information management. Building information modeling (BIM) in the construction industry provides a solution to such issues with effective data information modeling. Existing research has considered a very general BIM semantic model and focused only a small portion of the entire drill-and-blast construction process. Tunnel boring machine (TBM) projects have successfully applied linked data models and multimodel concepts in BIM, but those technologies have yet to be adopted in drill-and-blast tunneling. To address that gap, a novel BIM-based multimodel tunnel information modeling (TIM) framework is presented here to improve project management, construction, and delivery by integrating five interlinked data models and project performance data for drill-and-blast tunnel construction. Data models of tunnel construction processes are linked to propose the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC)-Tunnel classes based on the objects, relationships, and property set definitions of the IFC schema. To validate the proposed framework, an implementation case study of a hydropower tunneling project is presented. The results indicate that the framework facilitates data sharing, information integration, data accessibility, design optimization, project communication, efficient project management, and visualization of tunnel design and construction processes.

Heritage buildings are subject to severe damage due to their exposure to dynamics such as environmental changes, earthquakes, structural loads, etc., thus needing a proper maintenance and management system. However, during the restoration, maintenance, and management process, heritage building practitioners face numerous challenges, such as inefficient project management, financial loss, and project delay. These problems arise due to a lack of digital documentation and updated information management systems. Heritage building management still uses traditional management techniques where heritage information is managed using multiple format systems by different professionals, thus missing collaboration, information integration, and interoperability. Building information modeling (BIM) is presented here as a supporting tool to address these issues. The aim of this study is to develop a novel HBIM framework to manage heritage buildings in an integrated and interoperable environment that supports 3D digital documentation to conserve a heritage building and facilitate restoration planning and facility management (FM) activities. Moreover, we demonstrate FM integration with BIM to promote this digital technique. The results indicate that the proposed framework is feasible and effective in providing information integration and communication between stakeholders in managing heritage buildings.

Underground utilities are important assets that provide basic services for society’s daily life. They are generally very complex and remain unnoticed until they fail due to any particular reason. The stakeholders involved in the design, construction, and maintenance of utility infrastructure face many problems due to the traditional underground utility management system, resulting in injuries, loss of life, disruptions, project delays, and financial loss. The problem with the traditional system is that it uses 2D drawings and keeps unreliable information or a lack of updated information, which makes it an inefficient utility management system. With the advancement in construction information technology, we can address this effectively by integrating BIM and GIS. In this paper, a novel integrated BIM-GIS framework for underground utility management systems was developed on the basis of IFC to CityGML mapping. It provides an effective underground utility management system that facilitates designers in optimization of the design, assists in the excavator’s operator by providing real-time three-dimensional spatial information during the construction process, and acts as an as-built information database for utility facility management. For validation, a real-time project case study indicated that the proposed system can effectively provide comprehensive underground utility information at different project stages.

The increase in population and urbanization needs attention towards intense construction activities to meet the social and economic needs. Soil excavation is a primary step in every construction project that needs proper surface and subsurface information modeling since it is vulnerable to construction hazards. Geographic information system (GIS) provides significant information about the existing contextual surface information while building information modeling (BIM) gives information about the asset in a great detail that has been integrated into the construction industry for many applications. However, the integration of BIM and GIS for the subsurface geotechnical property modeling and classification into zones has been rarely explored. This paper presents the integration of BIM and GIS for modeling geotechnical properties and safe construction zones based on soil type. The use of open standard IFC classes such as IfcBorehole, IfcGeoslice, and IfcGeomodel enhances the collaboration and allows the exchange of geotechnical information among different stakeholders. The method has been applied to the in-situ and laboratory test dataset of the Peshawar, region, to validate the proof of concept. The results demonstrate that the proposed method successfully integrates BIM and GIS providing a three-dimensional surface and subsurface model. The 3D digital geotechnical model has excellent potential to provide information about soil type, properties, depth, and volume of each available soil layer that can be used by construction planners and managers to identify best construction practices and plan for safe construction.

Electric appliances for cooling and lighting are responsible for most of the increase in electricity consumption in Karachi, Pakistan. This study aims to investigate the impact of passive energy efficiency measures (PEEMs) on the potential reduction of indoor temperature and cooling energy demand of an architectural campus building (ACB) in Karachi, Pakistan. PEEMs focus on the building envelope’s design and construction, which is a key factor of influence on a building’s cooling energy demand. The existing architectural campus building was modeled using the building information modeling (BIM) software Autodesk Revit. Data related to the electricity consumption for cooling, building masses, occupancy conditions, utility bills, energy use intensity, as well as space types, were collected and analyzed to develop a virtual ACB model. The utility bill data were used to calibrate the DesignBuilder and EnergyPlus base case models of the existing ACB. The cooling energy demand was compared with different alternative building envelope compositions applied as PEEMs in the renovation of the existing exemplary ACB. Finally, cooling energy demand reduction potentials and the related potential electricity demand savings were determined. The quantification of the cooling energy demand facilitates the definition of the building’s electricity consumption benchmarks for cooling with specific technologies.